Librarian involvements with vendors

[Brian Simboli <brs4@lehigh.edu>]

I was rather surprised this week to come across a vendor's website that
solicits ideas about new products but that includes a disclaimer
suggesting that the submitter of information agrees that the vendor can
use the information without remuneration.

There is, I think, an unfortunate tendency to regard librarian input about
product enhancements as yet one more generous service that librarians
provide, thereby overlooking the depth of accumulated experience that they
have acquired over years of serving their populations. Perhaps this is
part and parcel of the longstanding and ever-more incorrect perception of
librarians as persons who hide away in the stacks. That perception is
gradually eroding, of course, as librarians have become more and more
business-like; witness, e.g., how vocal they have been about aspects of
the serials crisis.

The tendency does not always exhibit itself; I know of one case in which
librarians were able to cut a very fair deal on a library product by
virtue of having provided lots of input about it. Also, if librarians are
dealing with non-profit organizations, there is a respectable /pro bono/
dimension to providing insight on how to improve products.  Furthermore,
there is all the reason in the world for librarians to sit on vendor
panels as a way of providing feedback about vendor services.

It is of course within the right of vendors to solicit new ideas. I would
recommend, however, to my colleagues that they be wary of giving away the
store when they talk to vendors about new products or product
enhancements. It is of course within the right of vendors to request such
feedback, but it is worth keeping in mind that significant feedback (i.e.,
feedback over and above merely pointing out problems with current
services) can--and I think should-- result in lowered pricing for an
institution, tailored to the benefits that the vendor accrues. And in fact
the results of such arrangements can contribute greatly to both vendors
and the institutions to whom they sell products. Everyone wins.

Brian Simboli
Science Librarian
Library & Technology Services
E.W. Fairchild Martindale
8A East Packer Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3170
(610) 758-5003 
E-mail: brs4@lehigh.edu